What is the survival rate for women with breast cancer?
The current five-year survival rate for women with breast cancer is 86%. (The survival rate is the percentage of women who are still living a period of time after they are diagnosed with breast cancer.) The current ten-year survival rate is 76%. These rates include women at all stages or levels of severity of breast cancer. Women with cancer that has not metastasized – that is, the cancer has not moved to the lymph system or other parts of the body – have a five-year survival rate of 96%. Women whose breast cancer has metastasized to other parts of the body have a five-year survival rate of 21%. From 1976 and 1997, there was a statistically significant improvement in the five-year breast cancer survival rate of eleven percentage points (from 75% to 86%). This was largely the result of improvements in the detection of breast cancer at early stages although advances in the treatment of breast cancer have also contributed. How is breast cancer survival described? Breast cancer survival is
